ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Why does the merchant attack the thieves? And why do they kill him? I can't see this happening in the scenario presented. I see two solutions to this:

1. Change the merchant's behaviour to match the circumstances. Have him wait to be rescued, and not attack the thieves, nor they attack him. The thieves could have killed him long ago if they had wanted to, and he knows that he can't win a fight against them, because he didn't when they captured him, and he wasn't even restrained before the fight began.

2. Change the circumstances to match the merchant's behaviour. One way of doing this is to have the second level start empty, except for a cage containing the merchant. When you open the cage door to release him, the assassin lord and his minions appear in their places, and the dialogue starts almost exactly the same as normal. The merchant would fight because he can, now that he is free from the cage, and the thieves would kill him to keep him from escaping.

All of this is contingent on my understanding of the situation being correct. (that he is being held for ransom when you break into their lair, and is unrestrained while fighting.)

Failed the merchant quest before even talking to the Assassin Lord. Hit a summoning trap, then the merchant rushed to "help" me and died fighting a summoned cutpurse. All of the thieves etc... were still neutral to me. Something should be changed so that the easiest way to win isn't to stand on the entrance the entire fight to avoid attracting the Merchant. This is the only part of the game that I savescum to beat, and feel no qualms about it.

EDIT: a very simple solution would be to make the merchant neutral instead of friendly.

Or disable summoning traps. I had one trigger too once, and it did not make any sense. I was like 'why are these guys hostile'. I never thought about it until now. It was a summon trap lmao. I thought they used stealth or something.